Cursed

Chapter 3

Eva's POV
When at the palace, I was only ever allowed to stay in the capital, and even then I had to have either a parent of a servant to accompany me. That and several bodyguards. Leaving the city was the first step in my journey, it had to be. The woods were almost completely isolated, there were few people and if they did notice me they'd just look at me with a confused expression for a moment before carrying on with their day.

As I roamed through the woods, I buried my face in my scarf, as usual, hoping for warmth. The shoes I had chosen certainly weren't appropriate for all the walking I was doing. They were simple slip on shoes, not boots, so they would repeatedly fall off at unexpected moments and they made it more than difficult to maneuver over all the roots, rocks and bushes.

The deeper into the forest I got, the louder a strange whining noise was. I couldn't figure out what it was, all I knew was that it scared the life out of me, even if I had been through much worse. Then, as I turned a corner, there was something peculiar in a clearing. Peculiar in more ways than one.

It seemed like a dragon, I had read about them before, but typically they were much larger than the one I saw then. It was barely bigger than a kitten. Then there was the bear trap clasped around its tail, blood dripping from it.

But strangest of all, it wasn't black, or white, or any of those overly familiar shades of grey. It was this bright colour. One that, as I got closer, made me feel warm. One that seemed familiar, but I couldn't place my finger on it.

Intrigued by this peculiar little dragon, I slowly reached towards the trap, muttering a charm as I did. Soon, with a screech from both dragon and trap, the creature was free.

Immediately, the small creature threw itself at me, burying itself in my coat for warmth, and as I held it in my arms, I no longer felt cold. Holding it close, I watched as colours trickled into my world. The sky now blue like it was when I was a child, the leaves on the trees green, and then the dragon, what colour was it? I didn't know what colours dragons usually were so I couldn't use that as a way to figure it out.

Then I noticed the blood on the bear trap. It's not white. I knew white. So red, Impure blood is red. So that means the dragon was:

"Red..." I said. "It's such a warm colour... I haven't seen it in so long, I almost forgot it."

I held the dragon up in front of me, staring at its glistening eyes.

"Your eyes, they're the same colour as the sun, the sun is yellow... yellow eyes, they're so mesmerising," I smiled.

Suddenly, the dragon fluttered out of my hands and landed on the dirt floor, then in a burst of red, yellow and orange, it turned human. A human boy with fiery ginger hair. He couldn't be much older or younger than me.

"I don't understand," he said, "Why do you keep talking about the colours? I mean, I appreciate you saving me, but colours aren't unique."
"Y-you're human?!" I couldn't answer his question, I was so startled that I felt mine were more important.
"If you answer my question first, then I'll explain."

So I told the boy about my curse, he listened intently, and I still couldn't tear my eyes away from his golden eyes, even as a human they were just as vibrant.

"Well, to answer your question, I... I'm a familiar. My original master was this witch of a woman who would barely feed me. I had to run away, but I got tired and that means I turn into my dragon form. That was when my tail got stuck."
"That's fucking awful..."
"It's not as bad as your story. Oh, I'm Casper by the way Casper Carmen, but you can call me Cas. And you?"
"Eva. Quick question, are you an Impure Cas?"
"Yeah, and your a Pure right?"
"Kinda, it's illegal for us to be together like this. If we're caught..."
"We could get killed. So... let's just not get caught, we'll run away! We were both running already!"
"You're right there... let's go find a new home!"